Ninja Theory Survival was ‘Fifty Fifty’

According to the creator Director Tameem Antoniades behind relatively known Ninja Theory, the guys who brought PS3 owners the delights of Heavenly Sword and the developers who are working on Enslaved for PS3 and Xbox 360, has told gamesindustry.biz that they had only a ‘fifty fifty’ chance of securing the transition between both games. In his words a ‘tight window’.

“It was difficult, actually, because once our exclusivity was done we had lots of staff, we didn’t have an IP and we didn’t have an engine,” he continued to explain during an interview at this year’s Develop conference in Brighton. “As a studio we don’t rely on investments or debt, so we use whatever we have in the bank to fund our next product. We had a very tight window in which to place a game – and it was touch-and-go, fifty-fifty whether we’d make it or not.”

Antoniades continues to explain his feelings towards entering the traditional consoles as an ‘insane’ risk to get into at the moment.

“The economics are difficult,” he said. “We did sell a good number of units, considering it was out early in the PS3 life cycle, but that wasn’t enough for us as a development studio to make royalties. So the margins are tight – you do what you can. The only thing you can do when you’re making triple-A games is to make the best game you can, and support the publisher as best as possible.

It’s then purely down to luck I think, actually – the planets have to align, and it’s a business that I think you’d be insane to get into to make money right now, the traditional console business. But if you do, and you make it, then you make it big.”